April 22, 2006 marks the 36th
anniversary of the first observance of Earth Day.

Former U.S. Senator Gaylord
Nelson (D-WI), Earth Day's co-founder, said he modeled Earth
Day on anti-Vietnam War demonstrations called "teach-ins"
that then were common on college campuses:

"I visited Santa Barbara
in the summer of 1969 to speak at a water conference, and then
flew north to Berkeley to speak at a conservation conference.
On the plane I read an article about the use of campus anti-war
teach-ins to educate students about the Vietnam War. Suddenly
the idea occurred to me: Why not devote a day to a nationwide
teach-in on the environment?

Thus was born Earth Day. Eight
months later, on April 22, 1970, 20 million people, 2,000 colleges
and universities, 10,000 grammar and high schools and 1,000 communities
mobilized for the first nationwide demonstrations on environmental
problems. Congress adjourned for the day so members could attend
Earth Day events in their districts. The response was nothing
short of remarkable, and the modern American environmental movement
took off.

My major objective in planning
Earth Day 1970 was to organize a nationwide public demonstration
so large it would, finally, get the attention of the politicians
and force the environmental issue into the political dialogue
of the nation. It worked. By the sheer force of its collective
action on that one day, the American public forever changed the
political landscape respecting environmental issues."1

Footnotes

1 "A Brief History of Earth Day,"
by Gaylord Nelson (1989), entered into the Congressional Record
on April 20, 1990 by Senator David Boren (D-OK)